University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh is a world-leading centre of academic excellence. With a history dating back to 1583, it is one of the UK’s oldest universities and Scotland’s largest, generating a turnover of more than £840 million each year.

The university has an outstanding history of discovery, invention and innovation, which include the theory of the Higgs boson, for which Professor Peter Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2013, and the cloning of Dolly the Sheep at the university’s Roslin Institute. Thirty-eight percent of the university’s research was rated world-leading, and a further 45% internationally excellent, in the most recent assessment of research quality in UK universities.

Edinburgh provides a high quality learning and teaching environment for its 20,000 undergraduate and more than 8,700 postgraduate students, 35% of whom come from outside the UK. The university is also leading the development of new forms of education: it was the first university in the UK to provide massive, open, online courses (MOOCs) to students right around the world and was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2013 for its distance learning masters programmes, which have re-shaped postgraduate education for trainee surgeons.

More than 13,600 people work at the university, with 36% of faculty are from overseas, helping the university to make a significant, sustainable and socially responsible contribution to Scotland, the UK and the world. In 2015, the University’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science received a Queen's Anniversary Prize for its research into coronary heart disease - research which has played a major role in the reduction in death rates through innovative treatments and guidelines and has saved many lives.

Case studies

The case studies below are just a snapshot of the range of activity taking place at the University of Edinburgh. From world-class research and collaboration with industry to innovative programmes designed to improve access for all students to higher education.